- Spending time at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum isn't high on the priority list of anyone outside of the employees of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, but maybe it should be. Seeing old nautical crap in some poorly lit, creaky old museum isn't exactly the most riveting use of one’s time, but on the strength of what workers at the Manitowoc museum found this week, that should change. Workers uncovered the possessions of a World War II sailor left aboard the USS Cobia, a submarine on exhibit at the museum. For nearly 70 years, those possessions went unnoticed and unclaimed even though the sailor who left the items is alive and well. Museum supervisor Paul Rutherford has worked the USS Cobia for more than 30 years and was performing routine maintenance in the torpedo room next to some bunks when he made a surprising discovery. "I thought, what if something was up there? That's what I said to myself before I even looked up, and I put my hand up, and was like, there's something up there," Rutherford explained. When he reached up, Rutherford found an old leather bag tucked away in a small space near the top of the sub. Inside were two Navy poems, a cocktail recipe book, a small red velvet pouch and a stamp with the name of sailor Hersey Williams. According to museum curator Karen Duvalle, Williams served aboard the boat in 1945 on the Cobia's fourth war patrol and was a part of its crew through the end of the war. He currently lives in North Carolina and was contacted by the museum once his possessions were discovered. "I was 18 years old at the time, and staying in that bunk during my first war patrol," he said. "I'm one of the last survivors, I'm sure. I was one of the younger ones on the ship.” Other items from the war have been found on the sub, but nothing as noteworthy as Williams’ items. He can't remember why he placed the items in such an obscure space and says that while he’s anxious to see them, he doesn’t necessarily need them back. Museum officials plan to put them on display some time next summer………….
- Has North Korea changed at all now that its Dear Leader is dead? Umm, no. Kim Jong Il may be dead and his son Kim Jong Un may be on his way to taking the old man’s place, but the Communist nation hasn’t lost any mph off its diplomatic fastball. In light of K.J. Il’s passing, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak had the gall to place placed his troops on high alert based upon the belief that the always-unpredictable North might become even more unstable during its time of transition. That move infuriated the North, which quickly rebuked Myung-bak as president a “pro-U.S. fascist maniac” and a “chieftain of evils.” The chieftain of evils blast might seem a few decades antiquated, but it is North Korea and they are operating in something of a cultural time warp, so cut them a little slack. Even though South Korea only put its troops on high alert and took no direct action toward North Korea or anyone else, the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said Wednesday that its Korean army would force South Korea to pay a price for the decsion. Myung-bak has been an unpopular figure in North Korea since he ended a no-strings-attached aid policy toward the impoverished North after taking office in 2008. He exacerbated those bad feelings by for barring all South Koreans, except for two private delegations, from visiting to pay respects after Kim’s death. The odds that scores of South Koreans would have flocked across the border somehow to pay homage to a man they despised is funny and would be even more hilarious if one suspected the North had a clue how absurd its suggestion was. The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea statement was carried by the official Korean Central News Agency and sadly was not accompanied by stock footage of nuclear bombs decimating cities or cities left in ruins following brutal destruction during a world war…………
- Science has finally given the world a much-needed silkworm spider hybrid. OK, so technically it’s not a hybrid of the time creatures but rather a hybrid of the silk they spin, but it’s still progress. Researchers at the National Academy of Sciences were able to genetically engineer a silkworm that spins cocoons composed of about 95 percent silkworm proteins and 5 percent spider silk proteins. The resulting composite silk is significantly stronger than regular silkworm silk and researchers are working to confirm that it can be as easy to produce in large quantities as regular silk. Blending the two types of silk was ideal because spider silk’s strength, lightness and flexibility make it an appealing material for sutures, artificial ligaments and tendons, bulletproof vests, but farming spiders for their silk isn't possible. Spiders are extremely are territorial and, if kept in close quarters, have a tendency to eat each other. To counteract that tendency, some researchers have engineered cells and even goats to produce spider silk proteins. Obviously, those measures are not effective in producing large quantities of silken threads and thus, the quest to produce two genetically engineered silkworms. With that goal achieved and the ideal blend of softness and strength created, researchers must now find a way to expand their idea on a larger scale. Their findings were published in this week’s issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which is riveting reading as usual………
- Fans want athletes to care about their sport. At a time when salaries and tournament purses are larger than ever, the idea that an athlete might not be fully dedicated to his or her craft even though fans are paying rising ticket prices to see games is nauseating. Serena Williams doesn’t care. She has won 27 career Grand Slam titles, scores more wins to her credit and has no plans to retire from tennis any time soon. Just don’t assume she loves the sport that has made her a multi-millionaire because that is definitely not the case. Speaking after her first-round win at the Brisbane International (which she withdrew from Wednesday after injuring her ankle in a second-round victory), Williams admitted she is no longer passionate about tennis and has never been a huge fan of sports at all. "I mean, I don't love tennis today, but I'm here, and I can't live without it ... so I'm still here and I don't want to go anywhere any time soon," Williams said. "It's not that I've fallen out of love; I've actually never liked sports, and I never understood how I became an athlete. I don't like working out; I don't like anything that has to do with working physically." If that doesn’t inspire everyone who reads it, clearly nothing will. Nothing says dedication and focus quite like admitting you don’t like anything that involves physical effort. Some of her thoughts could be attributed to tennis fatigue, as Williams turned pro in 1995 and won her first Grand Slam title in 1999, at the U.S. Open. While she hasn’t played nonstop since then and has taken time off both for injuries and to pursue off-court interests like fashion in the interim, spending 17 years playing a sport has the potential to wear on someone. But hey, she’s going to hang around, win some more tournaments she doesn’t really want to play in and make a lot more money, so it’s all good…………
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